The Complete Tolkien Companion (62 page)

Master of Buckland
– The traditional hereditary title borne by the head of the Brandybuck Family. This worthy was also sometimes called the ‘Master of the Hall' (in reference to Brandy Hall, chief dwelling of the Brandybuck clan). His authority was fully acknowledged in the Buckland, and also across the river Baranduin in the Marish district of the Shire proper.
See also
BRANDYBUCK
.

Master of Esgaroth
– The title borne by the civic leader of the Lake-town on the Long Lake in northern Wilderland. By the end of the Third Age, Esgaroth was, above all, a trading settlement, for much profitable water-freight was routed through it. Therefore, when the Dragon Smaug destroyed the neighbouring city-state of Dale, whose Kings the Lake-men had previously acknowledged, the latter found it necessary to elect from among themselves a Chief Merchant or Principal Burgess to conduct the bustling affairs of the settlement. This official was known as the Master of Esgaroth.

Master of the Hall
– The
MASTER OF BUCKLAND
.

Master-stone
– The eighth and mightiest of the
palantíri
or Seeing-stones made by Fëanor of the Noldor during the Elder Days. Alone of the
palantíri
it never left the Undying Lands, and was kept in the city of Avallónë in Eressëa. The seven remaining Stones were given by the Eldar of Eressëa to Amandil, Lord of the Faithful of Númenor, and by him to his son Elendil the Tall. But the Master-stone abides still in the Far West.

Mat Heathertoes
– One of the ‘Big People' of the village of Bree. During the War of the Ring he was killed in a skirmish between the Bree-people and outlaws.

Mathom
– A Hobbit-term for an object of any value for which a use could not be found, but which the owner was not prepared to discard completely.

Mathom-house
– The chief museum of the Shire, where old unwanted treasures or
mathoms
were kept. It was located in the township of Michel Delving.

Matta
– In original (as opposed to translated) Hobbit-nomenclature, the name
Matta
(often shortened, Hobbit-fashion, to ‘Mat') was normally given to male Hobbits.

Mauhúr
– One of the Orcs of Isengard; the leader of a patrol which, in February, 3019 Third Age, came to the aid of the Orc-band of Uglúk, encircled by the Rohirrim near Fangorn Forest when returning to Isengard with two prisoners. Unfortunately for the trapped Orcs, this attack was insufficient to allow Uglúk's band to escape; and Mauhúr's Orcs were all driven off or slain like the others.

May Gamgee
– The fourth child of Hamfast Gamgee and the elder sister of Samwise. She was named after Hamfast's only sister.

Mayor of Michel Delving
– Although his power and importance did not compare with that of the Thain or the Master of Buckland – hereditary titles borne by the heads of the influential Took and Brandybuck families – the Mayor of Michel Delving was at least the only official of the Shire ever regularly and properly elected, and the office did carry a certain amount of prestige. The Mayor was democratically chosen at the Free Fair, held every seven years upon the White Downs. His chief duty was to preside at feasts, though his office was also nominally responsible for the Shirrifs and the Messenger Service. At the time of the War of the Ring, the office had been held by Will Whitfoot for some years; but he was unjustly imprisoned during the ‘troubles' of 1419 Shire Reckoning (3019 Third Age), and his long stay in the unsavoury and cramped Lock-holes weakened the poor old Hobbit greatly. Therefore, after his release, Frodo Baggins undertook his duties for the eight months it took to restore ‘old Flourdumpling' to his former corpulent splendour.

However, the most famous Mayor in the history of the Shire was the illustrious Samwise Gamgee, elected to the office no less than seven times (between 1427 and 1476 Shire Reckoning). In 1434 Shire Reckoning (Year 13 Fourth Age), King Elessar chose the Mayor, the Master of Buckland (Meriadoc ‘the Magnificent') and the Thain (Peregrin I) to be Counsellors of the North-kingdom.

Mazarbul
‘Records' (Khuz.) –
See
BOOK OF MAZARBUL
.

Mearas
– The name given by the Riders of Éothéod (and, later, Rohan) to their remarkable Line of Horse-princes, which they believed to be descended from an animal brought to Middle-earth by one of the Valar during the Elder Days. The Mearas would suffer none but the rightful King of the Mark or his sons to ride them, and did not take to bridle and bit. The first of the Mearas whose name is known, Felaróf, threw his captor, thus causing the man's death – although the animal later attoned for this by surrendering his freedom to his captor's son: Eorl the Young, first King of Rohan. Felaróf understood the speech of Men and was as long-lived as his Master. His descendants, who included
SHADOWFAX
, were equally long-lived and immeasurably fleet of foot.

Mede
–
See
AFTERLITHE
.

Meduseld
– This large and splendid Hall of the Kings was the greatest work of craft ever created in Rohan. It was known as the ‘Golden Hall' of Edoras, for the roof and pillars were leafed with pure gold, and its hangings and tapestries were rich.

The Golden Hall was built by Brego, son of Eorl the Young, and at the feast held to celebrate its completion (in 2569 Third Age), his eldest son Baldor rashly vowed to take the ‘Paths of the Dead'. Baldor never returned and his sorrowing father died the next year. In later years all Kings of Rohan had their high seats in Meduseld.

Only once was it ever captured by foes: in 2758 Third Age the rebel Wulf (son of Freca) took Edoras and slew King Helm's son Haleth at the very door of the Golden Hall. However, Meduseld was recaptured – and Wulf slain – within a year.

Melian
‘Dear-gift' (Sind., from Q.
Melyanna
) – A lady of the Maiar, who alone of all the Ainur wedded one of the Erusen: Elwë (Thingol) of the Telerin Elves. She came to Middle-earth far back in the Elder Days, at the time when the Eldar were setting out on their Great Journey from Cuiviénen into the West; and in Beleriand, in the secret woods of Nan Elmoth, the sound of her voice sweetly singing was heard by a Lord of Elves, Elwë; and from that moment onwards his fate was linked with hers. It is not known whether or not Melian defied any prohibition in wedding with one of lesser race, but wed they were, and Elwë, who had visited Aman by the Grace of the Valar – and who hitherto had sought only to return there – now lingered in Beleriand and, with the aid of Melian, made himself the greatest King of Elves in mortal lands.

After the departure of the remaining Eldar they dwelled together in the land of Doriath, and Melian fenced the land with a Girdle of enchantment; and after a time she bore Elwë a daughter: Lúthien the Fair, who inherited her Mother's voice and beauty as well as her divine lineage. Melian dwelled with Thingol for the remainder of the Age; but the deeds of that time enmeshed her husband at the last, though against her design; and he was murdered. Then Melian withdrew from Middle-earth, and passed into the West, and never again left the Gardens of Lórien in Valinor.

Melkor
‘He Who Arises In Might' (Q.; older form
Melkórë
) – The name given in the traditions of the Eldar to the firstborn of all the Ainur, the brother of Manwë and the mightiest of all their divine race. Melkor, alone of the Ainur, envied his Maker, desiring also to be worshipped and adored. He disrupted the Great Music with themes of his own imagining, but was rebuked by Ilúvatar; and afterwards, in jealous rage, set himself for ever in opposition to the Creator and to the other Ainur, thus bringing into existence the qualities of Evil and Disharmony – with which his name will be for ever associated.

In this way began his long rebellion, which has lasted for uncounted Ages of Eä and is not yet ended, though Melkor himself dwells now in the Void beyond Eä, shapeless and powerless. Of all the tragedies which have since afflicted the offspring of Ilúvatar, this was the first and immeasurably the greatest, since it was the wellspring of all other sorrows.

See
MORGOTH
.

Mellyrn
–
See
MALLORN, MELLYRN
.

Men
– The younger Children of Ilúvatar; after the Elves, the noblest of all ‘speaking-peoples'; for whom the Gift of Mortality was expressly conceived as an alternative for life everlasting (the fate of the Elves); the race of Heroes, Mariners and ‘Masters of Horses', who came comparatively late into the Middle-world, yet soon allied themselves with the other Free Peoples and became especial friends of the Firstborn, whom they were destined from their beginning to displace.

For long ages before their first appearance in the Middle-world the coming of the
Atani,
the ‘Second People' had been prophesied among the Valar and the Eldar. But not even the Valar knew for certain what form of body they would take. Yet at last the Second People awoke, in the land of Hildórien in the wide East. For centuries they wandered gradually away from their birth-place, in all directions save north; and at last the westerly vanguard came first into Wilderland, and then into Eriador, and finally into Beleriand. These were the
Edain
(the Sindarin form of the more ancient Quenya name
Atani
). Originally the term had been applied to the race of Men as a whole, but everafter the Elves of Beleriand used it specifically for the Three Houses of the Elf-friends who fought alongside them in their wars against Morgoth, and who dwelt with them in allied kingdoms. Much is said of them elsewhere. What must be emphasised here is the way that their providential contact with the Elves at such a crucial stage in their development singled out this people from all other Mannish races for elevation. Consequently, their direct descendants, the
Dúnedain,
eventually came to deem themselves a ‘High People' – in comparison with other Men, whom they divided into ‘Middle' and ‘Wild' Peoples.

The ‘Middle Peoples' shared the same origins and earliest histories as the ‘High People', but their development was largely unaided by Elven-lore or fortuitous circumstance. For the ancestors of the Middle People were those of the Edain and their close kin who did not pass west to Númenor after the end of the First Age, remaining instead in Middle-earth where they elevated their culture at a far slower rate. However, they greatly increased in number and by the end of the Second Age, their descendants were far more numerous than those of the Dúnedain who had returned meanwhile to Middle-earth. Yet the kinship between the two peoples could still be discerned; and if their culture was ‘lower' than that of the High Men, then their histories were also untroubled by regret.

In comparing the destinies of these first two groupings of Men, one may note close parallels with the ‘High' and ‘Middle' Elves, i.e., the Noldor and the Sindar, likewise separated at an early point in their history but later reunited under circumstances both grievous and uplifting. Both ‘High' groups were early singled out for exaltation beyond the measure of the rest of their kindreds, yet a large proportion of them rebelled against higher authority, and were exiled to Middle-earth as a consequence. And in both cases the ‘Middle' race, which had freely elected to remain in mortal lands, found its culture greatly enriched by contact with the returning Exiles, while the higher kindred was obliged to diminish its own culture to some extent in order to lessen the gulf between the peoples.

A further similarity in the divisions of Men and Elves lies in the third group, comprising those peoples who shared the same basic origins as the two ‘Higher' groups but who were soon sundered from them – and, as a result, pursued paths of almost totally separate development. For by comparison with the ennobled members of their races, both the Silvan Elves and the ‘Wild Men' were rustic and primitive. The various races of Men who were termed ‘Wild' in the lore of the Dúnedain were not akin (except in the remotest possible sense) to the Edain of the First Age, and their subsequent histories display this basic difference. Included in this third grouping were: the Easterlings, the Haradrim, the Men of the White Mountains (and their descendants, men of Dunland), the Variags of Khand and, perhaps most alien of all, the ‘Púkel-men'.

Available evidence suggests that the first Men of non-Adûnaic stock – perhaps even an entirely different race – to wander into the westlands were the peaceful aboriginal hunters later known as the Woses or (in Rohan) ‘Púkel-men'. During the Elder Days, they appeared in Beleriand, and later settled the regions around the western vales of the White Mountains, especially those lands south of the river Isen (still called
Druwaith Iaur
or ‘Old Púkel-land'). However, early in the Second Age, another Mannish people, better organised and far less peaceful, followed the hunters into the mountain-valleys and drove them out of their ancient homes. The ‘Púkel-men' sought refuge in the southern forests, particularly Druadan, while their dispossessors occupied the fertile uplands and vales of the Mountains. However, these newcomers eventually found their fortunes diminished by the first rise to power of Sauron of Mordor. For, while they continued to grow in craft, making many works of stone amid the high valleys, they soon fell into Sauron's power, being ruled by him during most of the Accursed Years. These were the ‘Men of the Mountains' who built the Dunharrow and the labyrinth under the Dwimorberg – the purpose of which was never recorded – and who later swore an oath of fealty to Gondor which they afterwards broke with terrible consequences. After Sauron's first overthrow and the establishment of Gondor, their race was diminished; they abandoned the Mountains, and only the souls of the Dead remained to trouble the peace of the region.